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Album Review
by SashaS
4-2-2002
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More on: Echo And The Bunnymen
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| Echo And The Bunnymen |
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Echo And The Bunnymen: 'Live In Liverpool'
(Cooking Vinyl)
Echo And The Bunnymen release first-ever live album and it is a nicotine-stained beaut
Aside all reservations about live albums (such as further banking on already cashed-in songs), it is so easy to secure refuge in Echo And The Bunnymen’s songs, captured live at their show in Liverpool last year. ‘Live In Liverpool’ is something that really moves one profoundly…
From the opening ‘Rescue’ it is a ride with a band that truly doesn’t rely on nostalgia; tracks are often reworked to bridge the temporal gap and be injected into zeitgeist… Guitarist Will Sergeant’s fretwork sounds even more inventive and complimentary to singer Ian ‘Mac’ Culloch’s delivery. It adorns every song, from ‘Never Stop’ to ‘The Killing Moon’, ‘The Cutter’ and the closing ‘Ocean Rain’. Just the classics!
In between we find tracks from ‘Evergreen’ (1997), ‘What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?’ (1999), ‘Flowers’ (2001) and, the damnest thing is that, although these songs can’t have emotional impact of the favourites, they are on par quality-wise as this first-ever live album (DVD), recorded over two nights (17 & 18 August 2001) at LIPA (The Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts), effortlessly demonstrates.
It is so easy to visualise ‘The Mouth’ McCulloch with a cigarette in hand, hanging onto a mike in a posture between David Bowie and Jim Morrison, delivering songs of Leonard Cohen’s stoicism, The Doors’ mysticism and Velvet Underground ethos… Their whole catalogue should be protected as nation’s treasure. Bunnymen were a stepping-stone between punk and rock, psychedelia and poetry, a trans-Atlantic link between West Coast (drugged) dreams and Liverpool reality.
If ‘Is this the blues I’m singing?’ of the opening ‘Rescue’ doesn’t get you then you are beyond pop redemption. It is strange that veteran bands, although getting better with time’s withering, find it hard to retain public’s loyalty; it is often not a reflection on artists but their fans that are as fickle as winds of desire; well, probably more controlled by the mortgage demands.
‘Live In Liverpool’ is a jewel of a live album by one of the best-ever live acts; The Bunnymen remain one of the coolest bands around.
8/10
SashaS
4-2-2002
Echo And The Bunnymen’s album ‘Live In Liverpool’ is released 04 February 2002 on Cooking Vinyl
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